


Future's Present

by Greenygal



Category: Spider-Man 2099
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:34:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21845995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greenygal/pseuds/Greenygal
Summary: Afterwards, Miguel has some explaining to do.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Future's Present

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Llwyden ferch Gyfrinach (Llwyden)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llwyden/gifts).



If Gabriel had designed the scene of his brother's return, he would have done it differently. Maybe Gabriel would have seen Spider-Man swinging into view on a dozen Public Eye monitors, framed dramatically against a background of New Year's fireworks, and Gabriel would have cheered along with the rest of the crowd. Or Gabriel would have been facing some thugs on a dark downtown street, probably because he’d been doing something stupidly heroic, when a sardonic, welcome voice from above asked if he needed some help—cue very short fight scene, and the O’Hara brothers standing triumphant at the end of it. (Gabriel would like to think he’d get in at least one punch.) Or the melodrama version, an external shot of the city’s celebrations cutting to Gabriel sitting in a dark room, alone and melancholy, when the door slowly opened, and his heart raced as he watched it, not daring to hope—  


But life resisted proper scripting, and that New Year’s Eve Gabriel had stayed in to finish a quickie holoart commission, some fantasy birthday thing. Intent on a motion cycle that wasn’t syncing, he hadn’t even heard the door; the first thing he knew about it was a voice behind him. He yelped, whirled defensively, and promptly tripped over his own feet at the sight of Miguel. And that was how he greeted his brother who’d been missing for three shocking months: flat on his ass, in the middle of a flowery meadow, with unicorns watching them curiously under a bright purple sky.  


“Gabri! Easy! It’s me!” And it was: Miguel, standing there alive and in one piece, looking perfectly normal and not at all like someone who had gone missing while fighting some sort of hyperpowerful spider-murdering monstrosity.  


Gabriel blinked up at him and then exploded. “Where the shock have you _been_?” he demanded. “Three months! Three months with no news, no one’s seen you, can’t tell anyone what you were doing, can’t ask Lyla because _she’s_ missing, and now you just walk in like nothing happened--”  


His rant was cut off as he was pulled up off the floor as if he weighed nothing, and found himself wrapped in his big brother’s arms for the first time since he was eight years old. 

“Just shut up, will you?” Miguel muttered hoarsely against him.  


Gabriel hugged him back fiercely, and shut up.  


They stayed like that for a long moment, the knot of fear Gabriel had carried these months slowly unwinding: Miguel was alive and here, solid against him. “You’re okay,” he murmured, mostly to himself.  


Then the worry flared up again, and he stepped back to look his brother over anxiously. “ _Are_ you okay? What happened? Is anyone trying to kill you?”  


Miguel’s laugh was rusty. “I’ve...had better days. But it’s safe for now, and I’m home for real. I've been trying to get back, all this time,” he offered. “It’s just been—well, ‘complicated’ is an understatement.”  


“Have you been fighting those Inheritor guys?”  


“The—oh, them.” His brother, Gabriel thought irritably, had _way_ too many enemies. “No, we beat them, but then I got stuck in the Heroic Age,” Miguel said, as if being stranded eighty years in the past was just one of those transportation mixups that happened to everyone. “It’s been almost a year, my time.”  


A year? Gabriel opened his mouth, ready to ask one of the several hundred questions that explanation raised, but Miguel beat him to it. "And I will tell you about it some other time, but...I really don't want to talk about it right now, okay?” Without waiting for Gabriel to answer, he went on. “Instead, maybe you can tell me why my apartment is filled with _horses_?”  


Oops. Holo still running, right. “They’re unicorns,” Gabriel corrected.  


“So they’re horses with spears on their heads. That’s _much_ better.”  


Gabriel rolled his eyes. Miggy dove off buildings to fight giant monsters like it was no big deal, but put him next to a perfectly nice holo-equine… “Computer, save Augustin 33 and shut down. Better?”  


“Fantastic. Lyla?”  


“Yes, Miguel?” came a serene alto voice, and Gabriel grinned as a familiar golden form shimmered into place.  


“Can you re-integrate yourself with the building systems? Discreetly, please; I don’t want to send out any alerts I’m back until I figure out a cover story.”  


“Already done,” Lyla said calmly. “It’s nice to have some proper system architecture to stretch out in.” She tilted her head, apparently considering. “As for explanations, it would be difficult to disprove abduction by aliens.”  


Gabriel couldn’t help but laugh at Miguel’s exasperated look. “Nice to have you back, Lyla.”  


“It’s a pleasure to see you as well, Gabriel. The timestream would not have been the same without you.”  


“The timestream— _Miguel_??”  


Miguel looked pained. “I _said_ it was complicated. Look, it’s fine, I fixed the timeline, everything’s back where it’s supposed to be.” He waved a hand to indicate Gabriel and the apartment and presumably by extension the timeline, then frowned. “Except your stuff at my place. Are we...what, roommates?”  


Gabriel counted to ten, like the therapy programs suggested. Then he made it twenty, because the programs didn’t know Miguel. “Okay. We’ll talk about you changing the timeline later,” he said, vaguely proud that he’d managed to get the sentence out without screaming. “But no. We’re not roommates.”  


“So…?”  


“So,” Gabriel said pointedly, "after I smashed a hole in my apartment shooting an alien invader with a gun I wasn’t supposed to have, the building’s corp decided they wanted a tenant who was less trouble. So I just sort of...moved in while you were gone.”  


“Oh. Shock. Sorry.” Miguel frowned. "Did Alchemax give you any trouble? I was kind of expecting them to have tossed me out by now. I mean, it's a company apartment, and I haven't been to work for three months…"  


"Yeah, that's why I haven't gotten a new place. I figured if they evicted you I could grab some of your stuff for you."  


Miguel raised an eyebrow, looking not entirely convinced by Gabriel’s brotherly altruism. "And the fact that you're living rent-free in a place worth three times your income…?"  


"...is nice, yeah," Gabriel admitted. "But not worth dealing with your scummy boss."  


Miguel went rigid, his fists clenched. " _Tyler_ ," he hissed. "He was here? What did he do?" He scanned Gabriel's face intently—for bruises, probably, given Gabriel's history with Tyler Shocking Stone.  


Gabriel shook his head. "Nothing like that. He just came by and said you'd taken unscheduled leave and did I know where you'd gone. I said no and he smiled and said it'd be in everyone's best interests if to tell him if I did hear anything."  


"Or else," Miguel said grimly.  


"Yeah, he didn't say that pretty loud. He really wants you back, Miggy.”  


“Does he. Maybe I should take him up on that—“ Miguel’s voice was flat and cold, and his hands flexed at his sides in a way that reminded Gabriel that Miguel’s claws could carve through plascrete, never mind flesh.  


And not that Gabriel would shed any tears for Stone, but—  


“Miggy, you just got _back_. Maybe give it a couple months before you have to go on the run for assaulting the Alchemax CEO?”  


Miguel exhaled and seemed to come back from whatever scary fantasy he’d been having. “Okay. Good point.” He patted Gabri’s hand. “Don't worry, I’ll behave. For the moment.”  


Gabriel sighed. "I'll take it.” He peered at Miguel’s apparently bare hand curiously. “That felt weird—are you wearing camo gloves or something?”  


“Oh, right. Lyla, drop the holo, will you? I’m going to have to stop using it now that I’m back, anyway; too many scanners.” Miguel’s street clothes shimmered, and—  


“What is _that_??” Gabriel demanded.  


Miguel grinned, spreading his arms to show off—whatever it was he was wearing. “New costume. You like it?”  


Gabriel thought briefly about being tactful. Then he decided that tact had never been a big part of his relationship with Miguel and he didn’t see any reason to start now. “No.”  


Miguel threw up his hands. “Oh, come on! Why does everyone keep saying that?”  


“For a start, there’s the way the recoloring completely obscures the spider design, which isn’t ideal for _Spider_ -Man—“  


“That wasn’t actually a question, Gabri.”

"And yet. Seriously, Miggy, are people even going to recognize you in this thing?"

Miguel looked grumpy. “That’s what Kasey said.”  


“Wait, what? You went to see Kasey?”  


“I was trying to find you.”  


“And you asked _Kasey_? As Spider-Man?” Gabriel groaned. “Aw, shock, how’m I supposed to explain that?”  


“Sorry,” Miguel said, not sounding it. “Look, Gabri, I was running out of ideas; Lyla couldn’t get a listed address, you weren’t answering your vid, and Ma said you'd talk to me if you felt like it and then hung up.” He paused. "Besides—she didn't seem all that surprised that Spider-Man was looking for you. Something about hacking Alchemax programs?"  


Gabriel flushed. "I've just...been giving her some info. Times, dates, that sort of thing. She's kind of outnumbered down there, and..." 

"And I wasn't there?" 

"Well. Yeah. I—" He took a long breath. "I didn't know if you were ever coming back, Miggy. None of us did. And I can't beat up Alchemax, but—I just wanted to do _something_." 

"Yeah," Miguel said softly. "I'm glad you were there." 

"But you're going to take over kicking goons in the head again, right? Because we could use the help." 

Miguel grinned, fangs glinting. "I can manage that."


End file.
